 | CHAPTER XLIII. Lunheng |  |
CHAPTER XLIII.
Criticisms on Noxious Influences (Pien-sui).
It is a common belief that evil influences cause our diseases
and our deaths, and that in case of continual calamities, penalties,
ignominious execution, and derision there has been some offence.[1]
When in commencing a building, in moving our residence, in
sacrificing, mourning, burying, and other rites, in taking up office
or marrying, no lucky day has been chosen, or an unpropitious
year or month have not been avoided, one falls in with demons
and meets spirits, which at that ominous time work disaster. Thus
sickness, misfortunes, the implication in criminal cases, punishments,
and even deaths, the destruction of a family, and the annihilation
of a whole house are brought about by carelessness and disregard
of an unfortunate period of time. But in reality this idea is unreasonable.
In this world men cannot but be active, and, after they have
been so, they become either lucky or unlucky. Seeing them lucky,
people point at this happiness and regard it as the happy result
of their previously having chosen a lucky day, and seeing them
unlucky, they look at their misfortune as the fatal consequence of
their former inattention to an ill-timed hour. However, there are
many persons who become unhappy, although they have chosen
their day, and others who obtain happiness in spite of their neglect.
The horoscopists and seers, desirous of propagating their mystical
theory, are silent upon such misfortunes, when they observe them,
and hush up those cases of happiness. Contrariwise they adduce
abundance of misfortunes with a view to frighten people, lest they
should be careless in electing a day, and give many instances of
happiness to induce them to be cautious in observing the proper
time. Consequently all classes of people, no matter whether they
be intelligent or feeble-minded, virtuous or depraved, princes or
common citizens, believe in this from fear, and dare not make any
opposition. They imagine that this theory is of high antiquity,
Heaven and Earth and a doctrine of wise and holy men. The
princes are anxious for their throne, and the people love their
own persons, wherefore they always cling to this belief, and do
not utter any doubts. Thus, when a prince is about to engage in
some enterprise, the horoscopists throng his halls, and, when the
people have some business, they first ask for the proper time to
avoid collision and injury. A vast literature of sophistic works
and deceitful writings has appeared in consequence. The writers
are very clever in passing their inventions off as knowledge for
their own profit, winning the stupid by fear, enticing the rich,
and robbing the poor.
This is by no means the method of the ancients or conformable
to the intentions of the sages. When the sages undertook
something, they first based it on justice, and, after the moral side
of the question had been settled, they determined it by divination
to prove that it was not of their own invention, and showed that
ghosts and spirits were of the same opinion, and concurred with
their view. They wished to prevail upon all the subjects to trust
in the usefulness of divination and not to doubt. Therefore the
Shuking speaks of the seven kinds of divination by shells[2]
and the
Yiking of the eight diagrams. Yet those who make use of them,
are not necessarily happy, or those who neglect them, unhappy.
Happy and unhappy events are determined by time, the
moments of birth and death, by destiny. Human destiny depends
on Heaven, luck and misfortune lie hidden in the lap of time. If
their allotted span be short, people's conduct may be ever so virtuous,
Heaven cannot lengthen their span, and, if this span be long, Heaven
cannot snatch it away from them, though their doings be evil.
Heaven is the master of the hundred spirits. Religion, virtue,
kindness, and justice are the principles of Heaven, trembling and
fear, heavenly emotions.[3]
The destruction of religion and the subversion
of virtue are attacks upon the principles of Heaven; menaces
and angry looks are antagonistic to the mind of Heaven.
Among the irreligious and wicked none were worse than Chieh
and Chou, and among the lawless and unprincipled of the world
none were worse than Yu and Li.[4]
Yet Chieh and Chou did not
die early, and Yu and Li were not cut off in their prime. Ergo
it is evident that happiness and joy do not depend on the choice
of a lucky day and the avoidance of an unpropitious time, and
that sufferings and hardships are not the result of a collision with
a bad year or an infelicitous month.
Confucius has said, "Life and death are determined by fate,
wealth and honour depend on Heaven."[5]
In case, however, that
certain times and days are to be observed, and that there are
really noxious influences, wherefore did the sage hesitate to say
so, or why was he afraid to mention it? According to the ancient
writings scholars have been enjoying peace or been in jeopardy,
thousands of princes and ten thousands of officials have either
obtained or lost luck or mishap, their offices have been high or
low, their emoluments have increased or diminished, and in all
this there have been many degrees and differences. Taking care
of their property, some people have become rich, others poor, they
have made profits, or suffered losses, their lives have been long or
short, in brief, some have got on, while others remained behind.
The exalted and noble have not selected lucky days in all their
doings, nor have the mean and ignoble chosen an unlucky time.
From this we learn that happiness and unhappiness as well
as life and death do not depend on the lucky auguries which
people encounter, or on the time of ill omen or dread, whith which
they fall in. While alive, men are nurtured by their vital fluid,
and, when they expire, their life is cut off. During their lives
people do not meet with a special luck or joy, nor can it be said
that at their deaths they fall in with an ominous time of dread.
Taking Confucius as a witness and basing our arguments on life
and death, we come to the conclusion that the manifold misfortunes
and calamities are not brought about by human actions.
Confucius is a sage and a store of knowledge. Life and death
are the greatest events. These great events prove the justness of
our theory. Confucius has declared that life and death are determined
by destiny, and that wealth and honour depend on Heaven.
All the writings and covert attacks cannot invalidate this dictum,
and common and weak-minded people cannot controvert it. Our
we can attract them ourselves by our actions.[6] If people lead a
tranquil and inactive life, happiness and misfortune arrive of their
own accord. That is fate. If they do business and work, and
luck or mishap fall to their lot, they have themselves been instrumental.
Very few of the human diseases have not been caused by
wind, moisture, eating or drinking. Having exposed themselves to
a draught, or slept in a damp place, people spend their cash to
learn, which evil influence has been at play. When they have
overeaten themselves, they rid their vital essence from this calamity
by abstinence, but, in case the malady cannot be cured, they believe
that the noxious influence has not been detected, and, if their
life comes to a close of itself, they maintain that the divining
straws have not been well explained. This is the wisdom of
common people.
Among the three hundred and sixty naked animals[7]
man
ranks first; he is a creature, among the ten thousand creatures
the most intelligent. He obtains his life from Heaven and his
fluid from the primordial vapours in exactly the same manner as
other creatures. Birds have their nests and eyries, beasts their
dens and burrows, reptiles, fish, and scaly creatures their holes,
just as man has cottages and houses, high-storied buildings and
towers.
Those moving creatures die and suffer injuries, fall ill and
become worn out, and the big and the small ones prey upon one
another, or man hunts and seizes them as a welcome game for his
mouth and belly. They do not miss the proper time in building
their nests and burrowing their hollows, or fall in with unlucky
days in rambling east and west. Man has birth and death, and
so other creatures have a beginning and an end. He is active, and
so other creatures have their work likewise. Their arteries, heads,
feet, ears, eyes, noses, and mouths are not different from the human,
only their likes and dislikes are not the same as the human,
hence man does not know their sounds, nor understand their
meaning. They associate with their kindred and consort with their
flock, and know, when they can come near, and when they must
keep away just like man. They have the same heaven, the same
earth, and they look equally up at the sun and the moon. Therefore
demons and spirits should fall upon man alone, and not on the
other creatures. In man the mind of Heaven and Earth reach their
highest development. Why do the heavenly disasters strike the
noblest creature and not the mean ones? How is it that their
natures are so similar, and their fates so different?
Punishments are not inflicted upon high officials, and wise
emperors are lenient towards the nobility. Wise emperors punish
the plebeians, but not the patricians, and the spirits visit the noblest
creature with calamities and spare the mean ones? This would
not tally with a passage in the Yiking to the effect that a great
man shares the luck and mishap of demons and spirits.[8]
When I have committed some offence and fallen into the
clutches of the law, or become liable to a capital punishment, they
do not say that it has been my own fault, but that in my house
some duty has been neglected. When I have not taken the necessary
precautions for my personal accommodation, or when I have
been immoderate in eating or drinking, they do not say that I
have been careless, but discover some impordonable disregard of
an unlucky time. In case several persons die shortly one after the
other, so that there are up to ten coffins awaiting burial, they do
not speak of a contagion through contaminated air, but urge that
the day chosen for one interment has been unlucky. If some
activity has been displayed, they will talk about the non-observance
of lucky or unlucky days, and, if nothing has been done, they
have recourse to one's habitation. Our house or lodging being
in a state of decay or delapidation, flying goblins and floating
spectres assemble in our residence, they say. They also pray to
their ancestors for help against misfortunes and delivery from evil.
In case of sickness, they do not ask a doctor and, when they are
in difficulties, they do not reform their conduct. They ascribe
everything to misfortune and call it offences or mistakes. Such is
the type of the ordinary run; their knowledge is shallow, and they
never get at the bottom of a thing.
When delinquents are employed by the Minister of Works
for hard labour, it does not follow that the day, when they appeared
before the judge, was inauspicious, or that the time, when
they were condemned to penal servitude, was one of ill omen. If
a murderer selects an auspicious day to go out and meet the judge,
who inflicts his punishment, and if he chooses a good time for
pardon arrive?
A man is not punished, unless he has met with mishap, nor
thrown into jail, if not punished. Should one day a decree arrive,
in consequence of which he could walk out released from his fetters,
it would not follow that he had got rid of evil influences.
There are thousands of jails in the world, and in these jails
are ten thousands of prisoners, but they cannot all have neglected
the precarious time of dread. Those who hold office and have
their revenues, perhaps from special towns and districts, which
have been given them in perpetual fief, number thousands and tens
of thousands, but the days, when they change their residences,
are not always lucky.
The city of Li-yang[9]
was flooded during one night and became
a lake. Its inhabitants cannot all have been guilty of a disregard
of the year and the months. When Kao Tsu rose, Fêng and
P`ei[10]
were recovered, yet their inhabitants cannot be said to have
been particularly cautious with reference to times and days. When
Hsiang Yü stormed Hsiang-an, no living soul was left in it.[11]
This
does not prove, however, that its people have not prayed or worshipped.
The army of Chao was buried alive by Ch`in below Ch`angp`ing.
400,000 men died at the same time together.[12]
When they
left home, they had surely not omitted to choose a propitious time.
On a shên day one must not cry, for crying entails deep sorrow.
When some one dies on a wu or a chi day, other deaths will follow,
yet in case an entire family dies out, the first death did not of
necessity take place on a shên, wu, or chi[13]
day. On a day, when
blood-shed is forbidden, one must not kill animals, yet the abattoirs
are not scenes of more misfortunes than other places. On the first
day of the moon, people should not crowd together, yet shops are
not especially visited with disasters. When skeletons become visible
on the surface of the soil, they have not necessarily come out on
a Wang-wang day, and a dead man, whose coffin is standing in a
house, must not just have returned on a Kuei-chi days.[14]
Consequently
are, they do not find the truth.
Now, let us suppose that ten persons living and eating together
in the same house do not move a hoe or a hammer, nor change
their residence, that in sacrificing and marrying they select but
lucky days, and that from Spring to Winter they never come into
collision with any inauspicious time. Would these ten persons not
die, when they have attained a hundred years?
The geomancers will certainly reply that their house would
either be in good repair or commence to decay, and that, on the
Sui-p`o or Chih-fu days they would not think of leaving it. In that
case they might every now and then ask the soothsayers about the
state of their house and remain in it, as long as it is in good
repair, but leave it, when it begins to delapidate, and, on the Suip`o
and Chih-fu[15]
days, the whole family might move. But would
they not die then at the age of a hundred years?
The geomancers would again object that while changing their
residence they would hit upon an unlucky time, or that their moving
to and fro might be unpropitious. Then we would advise them
to consult the seers and not to move, unless they can safely go,
nor revert, unless their coming is without danger. But would they
remain alive then after having reached a hundred years?
The geomancers would not fail to reply that life stops and
that age has a limit. Ergo human life and death solely depend
on destiny; they are not affected by unlucky years and months,
or influenced by a disregard of fatal days of dread.
Shuking, Hung-fan Pt. V, Bk. IV, 23 (Legge Vol. III, Pt. II, p. 335). By
another punctuation the commentators bring out another meaning viz. that there are
seven modes of divination in all, five given by the tortoise and two by milfoil.
We must not suppose that Heaven can fear and tremble, for, as Wang
Ch`ung tells us over and over again, Heaven is unconscious and inactive. It possesses
those qualities ascribed to it only virtually. They become actual and are put into
practice by man, who fulfils the commands of Heaven with trembling awe. Its moral
feelings are heavenly principles and heavenly emotions. Cf. p. 129.
Two emperors of the Chou dynasty of bad repute. Yu Wang reigned from
781 to 771 b.c., Li Wang from 878 to 828 b.c.
| CHAPTER XLIII. Lunheng | |